Weekly Discoveries 11.06.2014 – Wonder Woman, 10 String Symphony & Timmy’s Organism
Charles
Mary Norris’ Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
This week I received a galley copy of Mary Norris’ new book Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen which will be published by W.W. Norton during Spring 2015. Mary was kind enough to share this advance copy with me due to her fondness for Blackwing pencils. A lifelong pencil fan with a predilection for the extra soft #1 pencils, she fondly recalls receiving daily morning deliveries to her desk by the tray-full by the “office boy”. Mary shares entertaining stories and humorous but practical advice on language, spelling and punctuation gleaned through decades experience as Copy Editor at the The New Yorker. Of course, her fondness for pencils as a critical tool of her trade is covered as well in a chapter titled, Ballad of a Pencil Junkie. So, if you love language and writing in all its quirky and imaginative forms and want a behind the scene look at the trials and tribulations of a Comma Queen, add this title to your watch list for next Spring. In the meantime, here’s a past blog post from Mary which gives you a sense of some of her chapter on pencils.
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Grant
10 string symphony
The duo of Rachel Baiman and Christian Sedelmyer (Jerry Douglas Band) are known affectionately as 10 String Symphony. I met them at the studio yesterday when they came in to lend their talents to the Willy Tea record. Even though Rachel played banjo in the session, they are known for their dueling five-string fiddles. I had a listen to what I could find online last night and I can’t wait for their record to come out next year. And they’re about as humble and friendly as it gets.
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John
Timmy’s Organism – Singles & Unreleased Tracks 2xLP (HoZac)
Detroit’s Timmy Vulgar has been a weird punk fixture for over a decade. His garage-punk outfit The Clone Defects were considered one of the most explosive acts from the turn-of-the-cetury garage rock revival that spawned the White Stripes; his work in sci-fi punk scrappers Human Eye has transcended rock and roll in a way that Beefheart would be proud of. His “solo” output as Timmy’s Organism has seen releases on mainstay underground labels like In the Red, Sacred Bones and now HoZac. The upcoming “Singles & Unreleased Tracks” double-LP is my introduction to Vulgar’s inspiring recording project and I hope it will be for many others, too. The percussive skronk of “Nocturnal Festering Bubblelites” feels as zoned-out as The Residents; “Sadness Walks” recalls contemporary home-punks like Dan Melchior with a melancholy croon and an underlying ironical sneer.
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Mahlon
Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s Wonder Woman
This past week comic writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chiang officially ended their run on Wonder Woman for DC comics. Having a new creative team take over a title after a story arc is finished or after a few issues is something fairly normal for the industry, which is why I wanted to take a moment to call out this particular book. Most story arcs last between 3 and 6 issues some even last upwards of a year. This arc lasted three years. Since 2011 Azzarello and Chiang have been focused on telling one story across 35+ issues of the comic. It takes a truly dedicated team to plan and execute a story that spans as long as this one has. Although I haven’t read the end of this monumental story yet, it’s been a great ride and I can’t wait to find out how they wrap this one up.
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Alex
Derick Watts and the Sunday Blues
I recently attended a conference in San Francisco that was MC’d by two comedians from South Africa who call themselves Derick Watts and the Sunday Blues. They opened with a parody of the intro to Full House that almost caused me to fall out my chair, and suddenly spending two days at a conference didn’t seem so bad. They had the unfortunate task of entertaining a room full of developers and, while many of their jokes were met with awkward silence, I hope they were able to hear my laughter from the back of the room.